About FH Dark Sky

About Fountain Hills Dark Sky Association

Fountain Hills stands apart from other communities for a number of reasons; its signature fountain, its geography and scenery, its small-town feel in the corner of a major metropolitan area, its adjacency to parks, preserves, and national forest, and its dark sky.

Unfortunately, the advent of new lighting technologies, such as LEDs, threaten to destroy the Town’s dark sky asset, creating annoying glare and over-lit areas, causing a graying of our dark sky that would end the ability to see most of the stars that are currently visible, adversely impacting the opportunity to grow an astro-tourism industry, and diminishing the nationally-recognized Fountain Hills Library telescope loaner program.

For these reasons, the Fountain Hills Dark Sky Association was formed in early 2015 with the following goals:

1. Obtain Town Council support for updating the outdoor lighting and sign ordinances to address new lighting technologies and meet the requirements of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA). This goal was achieved on November 3, 2016, when the Town Council voted unanimously in support of the updated ordinances.

2. Meet all application requirements of IDA to have Fountain Hills be awarded the prestigious designation of Dark Sky Community.